Manistique Elks host district officers

Above, newly inducted members and Elks officers, as well as district officers are shown.
Courtesy photo MANISTIQUE – Upper Peninsula District Officers for the Michigan Elks Association recently visited Manistique Elks Lodge 632 for an annual inspection and audit.

The lodge also held an initiation ceremony and welcomed four new members. New members include Loyle Anderson, David Johnson, Matt Silkworth and Justin Woodruff.

Elks National Foundation Chairman Pete Gadzinski spoke about the charitable work the Elks performs and stressed the importance of making that work known.

“Some people in our community see their local lodges as a social club or as a rental place to hold events, the reality is that our charities are leading the state,” he said. “In 2012 the Michigan Elks Association awarded $218,560 in grants to charities and $92,000 in scholarships. We also funded $13,860 to Michigan veteran’s hospitals. The Manistique lodge sponsored four cases to the Bay Cliff Health Camp through the Michigan Association as well. Obviously we want our members to volunteer and be active in the lodge, but even if they can’t, if they are unavailable to help at the local level, just the revenue generated by them being a member is a tremendous help to our local charities.”

James Gaffney, lodge treasurer, says membership is stable and the lodge is running well.

“Our current membership is at 217, we usually operate between 210 and 230,” he said. “We had an excellent visit and inspection from our district officers and that reflects the hard work of our members, staff, officers, and Exalted Ruler Andy Holub. Our past Exalted Rulers are very active in the club operations and we have a great slate of officers in the lower chairs that will be coming though in the next few years. Everyone works really well together to get things done and I would urge anyone interested in joining to contact the lodge.”